Federal District Court Judge Richard Leon ruled earlier this week that the NSA telephone surveillance was almost certainly unconstitutional.
It’s the first legal setback for the Obama Administration, which has so far managed to keep most of the NSA’s misdeeds confined to secret closed-door FISA courts and classified rulings, but the ruling could have impact well beyond the courtroom, and the single surveillance program.
That’s because President Obama has been trying to push for time to unveil some sort of “reform” package that, by all indications, will do materially nothing to the programs themselves. The hope from the administration is that it will be enough to quiet civil liberties campaigners.
The ruling adds more emphasis to the many problems with the NSA programs in general, and as Obama seeks to push the announcement back until at least January, he’s going to be hearing growing calls to curb the program in a real way.
It’s also going to put more pressure on Congress to offer reforms of its own, something that so far has been stalled in committee.
The cronies who benefit from big government will bribe John Roberts just as they did with Obamacare.
"…more pressure on Congress to offer reforms of its own…"
yeah, like that's going to happen. The last thing the members of Congress want is for "outside money" to start running ads during an election cycle claiming that the Congresscritter is soft on terrorists and is in collusion with the left wingers willing to ruin the country.
The Congress no longer has the ability to cooperate nor engage in reasoned discourse.
And as for reform of the surveillance state, don't hold your breath.
Thanks judge Leon, thanks Larry Klayman, thanks Edward Snowden. Maybe, just maybe, the US will return to being ruled by law, and its citizens granted their constitutional rights.
Pressure from whom?The wacko Reps love big brother with the same fervor as the feckless Dems.And the tea party guys are marginalized by the MSM,so any attack by them will be neutered by our traitor media.
"almost certainly unconstitutional."
No, actually Leon ruled that it IS unconstitutional, and ordered the NSA to cease its collection and destroy all the data it has collected.
Of course, Obama has appealed the ruling. The case is called Klayman vs. Obama. This will likely be dragged out for years, during which Obama will continue the illegal bulk collection of public data.
Woo! Change we can believe in! Obama is the shining light unto the masses! Such a great guy!
Here is one of Leon's quotes from the ruling:
“I cannot imagine a more indiscriminate and arbitrary invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval. Surely, such a program infringes on ‘that degree of privacy’ that the Founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment. Indeed, I have little doubt that the author of our Constitution, James Madison, who cautioned us to beware ‘the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power,’ would be aghast.”
People act like this is something new. Surveillance of us, them and everyone in between has been going on since the 50's. I was in the military in the late 60's early 70's and we were doing it then. The NSA took over from us when they "downsized" the military. Trust me, every type of communication was monitored back then. And I'm sure they're even better at it now. No matter what the public debate about this is or what the pressure brought to bear amounts to…it will continue unabated.